


The Power of Power

by maxride003



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AH Kings Big Bang 2018, Gen, Kings AU, Mad King Ryan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 19:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16001534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxride003/pseuds/maxride003
Summary: When one of the Knights of the Star steps down, leaving the ruling group of six with one fewer member and a realm without a leader, a trial is held to find a new person capable of filling the Knight role. Ryan has been striving to join them for years, and when he gets the chance and is included in the tournaments that determine an active King, he’s ecstatic. With repeated tournament wins and chances at ruling, Ryan tests the limits of what he can do, pushing further and further, risking corruption by the nearly limitless power granted by the position, power he’s never had to handle before now.





	The Power of Power

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a first in a couple ways, where it's both my first Kings AU fic and also the first big bang I've taken part of. But I'm pretty happy with this, and I hope you guys enjoy it too! Special thanks to the mods of the [AH Kings Big Bang](https://ahroyalcourt-bigbang.tumblr.com/) blog for putting it together, my beta readers Jack and Gav, and my wonderful artist whose art for this fic can be found [here!](http://ryanismynamee.tumblr.com/post/178149172938/made-some-art-for-the-ah-kings-big-bang)

The Kingdom of the Star was a large and prosperous land, though one that many outsiders found strange in its creation. The kingdom was split into six distinct realms, six stretches of land that branched outward from a central capital city, with six very distinct climates, terrains and cultures that defined them. But that wasn’t exceptionally strange to everyone outside - the strangeness came in its ruling.

The ruling force in the kingdom was the six Knights of the Star. Not only was each Knight in charge of one of the six realms, they were also collectively in charge of the kingdom as a whole. They operated as one, made decisions, declared laws or rulings together, and it wasn’t uncommon for one Knight to step into another’s realm and assist if needed. They worked together to ensure the happiness of the kingdom, but always with one of the six Knights just slightly more elevated, one with a little bit more pull. This was declared to be the King.

In a kingdom run by an even number of people, it often came up that someone needed to call an end to a tied vote, and that was most of what the King was there for. To keep the peace between the Knights and make sure things ran smoothly. But for the most part, the title of King was purely decorative, and unlike in other kingdoms where a king or queen may serve their kingdom in such capacity for most of their lives, the King of the Star was a fleeting responsibility.

Roughly once every ten years, the King organized a tournament, gathering the other Knights together and inviting the people of the kingdom to come and watch. It was a tournament of games and challenges, a competition between the five Knights, where the winner would take the position of King until they decided it was time to pass it on once more. Though this system worked in the kingdom’s favor, preventing any one person from claiming too much power over the others, it was what outsiders found the most odd.

Within the Kingdom of the Star, however, it was accepted that this was how things went, and there were often people who aspired to rise to the rank of Knight. For unlike other kingdoms that restricted rule to royalty, anyone could become a Knight, if they were skilled enough. The main thing stopping people was the mystical longevity that the Knights possessed, which meant that it could be an entire lifetime for someone before a Knight chose to step down and free their position. But it didn’t keep people from learning and training and building their lives around the idea of becoming one.

For Ryan, that fixation came when he was six years old.

Though most people were talked down from their grand schemes of becoming a Knight as they grew older, it wasn’t uncommon for children to hold fast to this notion. The Knights were grand, legendary figures, especially in the eyes of a child at the far reaches of a quiet realm. Near immortals who ruled from the spectacular capital city, skilled fighters and crafters and magic users. Stories were told of them as children drifted off to sleep, spread in hushed and awed tones around the schoolyard, recreated with dramatic flair. 

Ryan participated in all of this like any of his peers did, and though he was convinced that one day he’d grow to be a strong and powerful Knight, it was a fantasy like any other kid entertained at that age. At least, until the Kings Tournament.

It was the first tournament to be held since Ryan was born, and knowing his son’s fascination with the Knights, Ryan’s father had scraped and saved in order to get them across their realm and to the capital city to watch. The tournament was a massive event, attended by thousands of people, and the first time Ryan had seen people from other realms.

He saw the grizzled fighters that lived in the Mountain Realm, where the large number of monsters lurking among the stones kept people on their toes and taught a person to steady a sword if they wished to venture outward. There were the illustrious citizens of the Diamond Realm, come down from their nice houses that were funded by the fine goods the people of the realm created. Those that hailed from the Sun Realm were darker skinned, deeply tanned by the sun’s rays that warmed their home plains, lithe and quick and dextrous. People from the Forest Realm were hearty folk, stocky and well muscled not from combat but from logging and construction work. Then there were the mysterious folk of the Magic Realm that piqued Ryan’s interested, cloaked in robes and sporting various books or arcane symbols. He was among some of the plainer people, as those in the Spring Realm were farmers and small business owners like his father, and a kind of people Ryan knew well.

A festival was held in the days surrounding the tournament, brightly colored and loud and stuffed full of excited citizens who were making the most of the event and the time they’d taken to visit the capitol. The energy and environment was one Ryan had never encountered, not in his quiet little town at the fringes of the Spring Realm, and it was a rush for a young child. He wanted to see everything, do everything, be everywhere within the city, and dragged his dad along behind him every step of the way.

Ryan and his dad had plans to be in the city for three days, with the final day filled with viewing the tournament. The first two days were spent exploring, looking at shops and listening to market vendors that had come out to take advantage of the crowds, playing a few festival games that caught Ryan’s eye, and generally getting their fill of the city. By the time they reached the night before the tournament, Ryan was too excited to sleep, staying up far too late and waking far too early out of sheer anticipation.

The tournament was set to start mid-morning, but Ryan and his dad got there far earlier, as his dad promised him a special surprise was waiting for Ryan at the arena. Already there were people clambering to get in and fill the seats, eager to find a good place from which to watch before all the preferred seats were taken, but Ryan and his dad avoided the worst of the crowd and went to a side entrance that was watched by a young man in a shiny suit of armor.

All it took was for Ryan’s dad to show him a piece of paper and they were let inside, much to Ryan’s awe and excitement. They got to go a way no one else was, and he didn’t know why, but that was already cool enough.

The side entrance led to a hallway which was relatively straight forward, and at the end was a small group of people. A handful of other children and their parents, as well as a woman in a suit of her own armor with a green star emblazoned on the front. It was here that Ryan heard about his own part to be played in the tournament.

The beginning of each Kings Tournament was marked by fireworks, six of them in different colors for the six realms and the six Knights. Traditionally, these fireworks were lit by children from the different realms, mostly as a way to involve a few and because those that participated found it to be great fun. Ryan’s dad had submitted Ryan’s name a while ago, and from there he’d been chosen to go out into the outdoor throne room and light the firework that was for the Spring Realm.

There were a number of rules and safety guidelines laid out, but Ryan hardly paid attention, buzzing with excitement and the energy that filled the entire arena. He could hear people moving and yelling and talking, he could see the edge of the green field at the end of the hallway, he could smell the meats and snacks that were being cooked up for the spectators, and all of it was distracting and fascinating all at once.

Finally, Ryan was handed a sparkler and he and the other five children were gathered at the end of the hall, in the large doorway that led out into the arena itself. It was massive, with high stone walls around the outside, above which the crowd sat as a single, colorful mass that waved and moved and shifted. Large mirrors sat within the surrounding walls, six small and carefully carved chunks of dark obsidian sat in a brightly lit alcove, and in the center of the arena was the throne.

It was huge, tall enough to have its own staircase leading up to it, the chair itself propped up high to nearly be the same level as the walls. It was a bright, polished gold that glittered in the morning sunlight, lined with pristine red fabric, and adorned on the top with a flag that displayed the green star of the kingdom. Ryan’s eyes were locked onto it, mouth falling open as a grin spread across his face. It was right there, so close to him, and more magnificent than anything he’d ever seen. He pictured himself one day sitting atop it when he was old enough to be a Knight, looking out over the onlooking crowd, the center of everything. It sent a chill down his spine and he wiggled in place, hopping from one foot to the other.

The wicks of the fireworks were pointed out to the group of children, carefully laid out cords that threaded far to the back of the arena. Then there was a dull bell being struck, a rise in energy from the crowd, and the armored woman pulled out a blackened ball with bright orange and red swirling beneath the cracks in the surface. She pressed it to the tip of each sparkler and they sprang to life, and as soon as the last was lit, the six kids were free to go.

Ryan bolted across the grass, his feet sinking into it slightly with every step, the sparkler leaving a trail of light in his wake. He skidded to a stop in front of the wick that had been pointed out to him, hopping eagerly and barely containing himself to wait for the second ring of the bell.

It seemed like it took ages, standing there in the huge expanse of the arena, listening to the roar of the crowd and looking around at the five other kids who were in their own states of awe, excitement, or nervousness. But finally the bell was struck again, and Ryan jabbed his sparkler down at the wick, watching as it caught fire and the crackling spark snaked its way down the length of it.

Ryan watched as the fire spread, all the way down to the back of the arena. Waited with bated breath for the fireworks to spark, for them to shoot up into the sky. It took longer than he thought, but then all six rockets fired up into the air, exploding high above and raining their colorful sparkles down on everyone gathered. Ryan stared up at the sky, gawking, a light gleaming in his eyes as he watched all of the color slowly fade away and burn out. It was like bright spots of magic that fell gently to the ground, a sight he’d never seen before today, and one stories had left him unprepared for.

A sudden rise in volume from the crowd jolted Ryan out of his thoughts and he spun around, remembering what he’d been told not too long ago, remembering that he should’ve gone back inside already. Someone stood behind him, and when Ryan turned around, he stumbled back a step in surprise, and a firm hand on his shoulder stabilized him as he looked up at the person before him.

Even just from stories, Ryan knew that face. He knew the short, messy black hair and thin beard, the kind blue eyes, the gentle smile. The green armor that shone in the sunlight, and dark cloak that flowed behind the man, and the shiny crown that sat on his brow. Ryan’s jaw dropped and he scrambled for words, for something to say, anything, as he stared up at Geoff Ramsey, current King and Knight of the Diamond Realm.

The king’s smile grew slightly at Ryan’s dumbfounded expression, and he reached into a pocket, holding something in his fist. He took his other hand off of Ryan’s shoulder and grabbed one of Ryan’s hands, pressing the small object into his palm and then closing Ryan’s fingers around it. Geoff winked and put a finger up to his lips before gently steering Ryan in the direction of the arena-level doorway, where the woman in armor and his dad were waiting for him.

After a moment’s hesitation, Ryan grinned back and then ran full speed back to the doorway and the comparative darkness of the hall. He was told off by the woman, told that he should’ve listened and come back like she’d said, but Ryan didn’t think much of it. Ryan and the other kids were each given wooden swords and a flimsy, fake crown as souvenirs, and then directed up toward the seats to watch the actual tournament.

As Ryan and his dad made their way up to the stands to find a place to watch from, Ryan opened up his clenched fist, staring at the small object Geoff had given him. In his palm gleamed a small cube of gold, identical to those presented to the Knights when they won a challenge, and Ryan’s heart leaped in his chest at the sight of it.

Geoff had given a gold block to  _ him _ , one of the blocks that only went to Knights, a tiny piece of the mock Towers that were constructed in a tournament. But this one wasn’t destined to sit atop a small piece of obsidian, and instead had been given to a six year old boy, and Ryan was thrilled.

Once the tournament got underway, Ryan was distracted from the small block, but kept it tightly gripped in his hand even as his attention wandered elsewhere. The other five Knights stood within the arena, in intricately crafted armor that shone in a rainbow of colors under the light of the sun. Ryan had seen pictures, heard stories about all of them, but seeing them so close to him was something entirely different. It was awe-inspiring, being able to see the men he considered heroes.

Geoff started by addressing the crowd, greeting them and introducing the tournament, but it quickly moved on to speaking to the other Knights. He laid out challenges, a wide variety of tasks from gathering a particular flower to wrangling a freed pig, and over the course of the day, the Knights rushed to be the first to fulfil the task. Some of them kept the Knights within the arena, and Ryan leaned against the railing in front of his seat, eagerly watching what he could.

When the Knights had to leave the arena, the large mirrors on the walls came to life with magic, large scrying screens that followed each of the Knights as they hunted for whatever the King had asked for. While all six were in the arena, there was a lot of noise and shouting and jokes tossed between them, but when the Knights left, it was only Geoff who remained to talk. He reclined on his throne, commenting on what was happening in the screens and talking conversationally with the crowd despite the constant rumble of voices that would make it impossible for him to hear any one person.

As a victor was decided for each challenge, Geoff presented them with a gold block like he’d given Ryan, and the blocks were carefully stacked on their miniature Towers at the side of the arena. There had been a break a few hours in for lunch and to give people a chance to stretch their legs without missing out on anything, but by now the sun was starting to set and Ryan’s stomach rumbled, and he’d sunken into his seat, eyes heavy despite his continued interest.

He wasn’t sure when he dozed off, leaning against his dad with his crown on his head and his sword and golden block hugged to his chest, but Ryan was awakened by a deafening roar from the crowd. He jumped, his crown tumbling off his head, and looked quickly around to the arena.

Geoff stood at the top of the stairs leading to the throne, and the other Knights gathered near the miniature Towers, one of which was completed. Jack Pattillo, Knight of the Forest Realm, stood in the middle of them all, getting both pats on the back and congratulations and dramatic cries of despair over his victory.

Ryan leapt from his seat and to the railing again, watching as Jack and Geoff met halfway on the stairs to the throne. They hugged and exchanged a few light words, and then Geoff lifted the crown from his head and placed it on Jack’s. As he joined the other Knights at the base of the stairs, and Jack stepped up to the throne, the crowd shouted and cheered loud enough that it shook the stands and Ryan could feel the vibrations in his feet.

It wasn’t long after that that the crowd started to dissipate, leaving the arena for the warmth and comfort of their beds. Though while others would simply hold onto this as an exciting memory, and some wouldn’t even pay it a second thought after a week had passed, it was the start of Ryan’s determination to one day stand in that arena as a Knight himself.

After the tournament, Ryan spent a lot of time learning about the Knights and how to become one if the chance arose. He read what he could understand, and asked endless questions when books and his vocabulary failed him. Through that, Ryan learned about the trials, the series of tests designed to evaluate a prospective Knight’s ability and performance before one would be selected.

He learned that all Knights were highly proficient in combat, in whatever form they chose to learn. All of them were kind and caring, and were personally liked by the current Knights even before being chosen. They each also brought a unique skill set or talent to the ranks, something that they became masters at, something special to them.

The starting point was easy for Ryan. He already knew he was nice, lots of adults told him all the time that he was a sweet boy, that was good enough. Finding a unique skill sounded hard, and Ryan didn’t know what a good skill was. He was good at hunting crawfish in the stream outside his town, he was good in school and was doing really well with math, he could run very fast, but he didn’t know how to be better at any of that. So the logical starting point was learning how to fight.

In Ryan’s eyes, it was an easy thing to do. A couple of his friends in town, Trevor and Alfredo, were about his age and were already learning how to use swords. Their dad was the blacksmith, and so they were around swords all the time, and were allowed to learn how to use them. Ryan figured it must be easy to get started learning, just ask the twins, though his dad wasn’t as convinced.

He wasn’t as keen on the idea of Ryan learning how to handle a sword, largely due to cost, and also because Ryan had no need to. It had already been established, even as young as Ryan was, that he’d one day take over the butcher’s shop his dad ran. While it required knowledge of blades, knives and cleavers were different from swords, and his dad thought learning one was more important than the other.

Eventually, when Ryan was seven, his dad caved in and agreed to pay for starting lessons. And if Ryan was serious and didn’t just drop the lessons as soon as he lost interest, then they would work out a way for the lessons to keep happening. All it took to come to this decision was for Ryan’s dad to walk in on him having a mock sword fight with two long steak knives, one of which Ryan had jammed handle-first between a door and its frame, lacking anyone to actually duel with.

By the time Ryan turned nine, playing at Knights was already starting to fade out of his peers. They were almost old enough to start apprenticeships in their parents’ businesses, or even travel to neighboring towns to work under someone else if they were lucky. Most kids already knew what they were going to do when they grew up, the town was built on a constant cycle of children taking over businesses for their parents, or going off to start similar businesses elsewhere. Though the Knights were still a point of interest and still amazing figures of legend, few kids still seriously believed in becoming one.

Ryan, however, couldn’t be dissuaded. He had learned knife safety and care from his dad and was helping around the shop most days after school, but he also threw himself into his sword training with fierce determination to get better at it. While most of his classmates were happy learning their basic subjects before embarking on their apprenticeships, Ryan dug for more information, seeking that thing that he could learn how to do better than anyone else, hunting down any scrap of knowledge he could about the Knights and the trial.

Adults talked where they thought he couldn’t hear, about how he was a good boy but he needed to leave the daydream he was living. How he was still young, he hadn’t settled into a trade fully yet, maybe he just needed a bit of time into an apprenticeship to mellow out. Teachers told Ryan to leave the Knights out of his mind, to stop pestering for more information, that it wasn’t a viable life path. His dad praised him for what he learned from his sword master, and then followed it up with statements about how he’d likely stray away from it when he got older.

When Ryan was eleven, he was still set to the same path.

Even with his apprenticeship started, his work underneath his dad practically a full-time job and education opportunity, Ryan strove to get better at the things that would make him a Knight. The sword lessons were more difficult to get through after a full day of working, but Ryan did it, not wanting to falter or give up just because he was tired. Evenings were spent curled up in bed with books, reading about the Knights, about history, about magic and math and science and every subject that Ryan could find.

It wasn’t long before he came across the intricacies of redstone.

Everyone knew about redstone, it powered the clocks people hung in their homes, it powered the lights that lined the streets, it was a main component of various mechanical contraptions that weren’t found in Ryan’s small town but were well known everywhere else. He’d learned about it a little bit in school, little more than the fact that it was a conductive material found in mines and was incorporated into all machinery, but his books taught him more.

They taught him the different ways redstone could be used, as powder or crystals or, occasionally, a liquid power source. How to create redstone circuits that would power something with the energy stored within the substance alone. How to control it, manipulate it, how to craft with it. Everything Ryan learned, he soaked up hungrily, fascinated by the designs and potential that redstone had.

By the time Ryan was thirteen, he had convinced his dad to let him do a different apprenticeship elsewhere. It took a great deal of convincing, it was just Ryan and his dad, and they didn’t have an excess of money to spend on sending Ryan to a new tutor, not to mention that it would leave his dad alone. But eventually Ryan got through to him, and he readied himself to leave his hometown.

The last seven years, Ryan had been focused and determined to reach his eventual goal, to become good enough to be a Knight as soon as it came up, but this decision made him pause. It would be a big change, leaving home to go to one of the cities closer to the capital. The only time he’d left the town was to visit other small towns nearby, or the single trip to the capital to see the tournament. And even then, he’d never been alone.

It was difficult, but Ryan put the town behind him and traveled on. Arrangements had been made for him to keep practicing his swordplay within the city, and he carried a new sword with him, a gift from Trevor and Alfredo before he left. He didn’t travel entirely alone, the redstone engineer he was now apprenticed to had come to travel with him, but it was strange leaving his home behind.

However, it was hard to remain focused on that, between all the work that Ryan had gotten himself involved with. Learning redstone meant more schooling besides just the basic subjects he’d learned at home. He had tutors and teachers in the city who taught him the subjects he’d always asked about but had rarely gotten good explanations for. After that, Ryan spent his time learning redstone mechanics and how to safely handle the material. Any free time where he wasn’t learning and studying, Ryan was practicing his swordplay and exercising to become stronger and stay in shape.

For years, this was Ryan’s life, until he hit twenty years old. He had grown tall and muscled with years of constant sword training, and had learned everything he could from his weapons master. He had the technical knowledge and skill, without the personal experience of combat. It was also around this time that his apprenticeship concluded, when Ryan had learned everything that he could from the teachers of the city and the engineer he’d lived with.

With his knowledge and training, it wouldn’t have been too difficult for Ryan to settle down and start making a name for himself in the business of redstone, but he didn’t want to do that. It would leave his sword mastery without a purpose, and he wanted to experiment and create his own redstone creations, which would be a lot harder if he was working on the creations of others. And settling down seemed too much like giving up on his goal to become a Knight, too likely that he’d make something that he couldn’t bear to leave when a spot among the Knights opened up, leaving him torn and regretting whichever decision he made.

Instead, Ryan traveled. He went to Achievement City, looking for other options, and it was there that he got into mercenary work. Someone skilled with a blade was often sought after and appreciated by merchants and travelers with little skill themselves, especially through certain areas where monsters were more prevalent. It also gave Ryan more practical experience when it came to fighting.

This kind of work suited Ryan, once he got into it. He traveled throughout the realms, seeing sights he’d only dreamed of before, and meeting people he couldn’t have imagined. His days were often lazy and quiet, napping where possible while traveling and otherwise getting to know the people he was helping. Nights, Ryan was left on his own, keeping watch by the light of a low fire and passing the time with small redstone experiments.

Sometimes Ryan worked with other mercenaries in a group, though more often he traveled with small caravans or wagons on his own, the sole watchman. There were quite a few jobs where his presence wasn’t even needed, people got to where they were going without issue, he got paid, and he moved on. But then there were those that made Ryan glad he’d spent fourteen years learning how to fight.

Through the craggy passes of the Mountain Realm, there was a constant threat of skeletons and zombies once the sun set, and Ryan was presented with his first combat against an archer. He had a few scars from that trip. Creepers showed up more frequently in the Sun Realm, unbothered by the sun’s rays, and one of the more challenging things Ryan had fought, as he had very little range to speak of and was constantly threatened by an explosion.

Within the Magic Kingdom, there were endermen. Tall and angry and easy enough to avoid, unless someone in the traveling party was dumb enough to meet their eyes. Which, at night, when they glowed purple around the giant mushrooms or through the haze of magic coming from a crevice, was difficult to avoid.

These travels made up the next ten years for Ryan. Frequent trips, encounters with monsters that just bettered his fighting ability, where he came up with ways to combat the different threats and remain unharmed. The time he often found on his own gave him more than enough time to work on redstone creations. He tested early warning systems when a camp was set up for the night, he made compact lanterns that operated with redstone alone, he modified compasses to point to a particular destination so that no one strayed off course. He planned and mapped out bigger projects, things to do if he ever stopped moving as much, things he could show if he ever wanted to become a Knight.

Few people knew of Ryan’s goals by now, as it was often seen as ridiculous for a thirty-year-old man to hold onto such a childish dream. He kept it to himself, brushing off questions about why he was a mercenary or what he was aiming for with a smile and a quick response just to end the conversation. Those he did tell often scoffed and gave him advice he’d heard growing up: He should leave it be, just settle down somewhere, do something worthwhile with his life, stop chasing a fantasy. But Ryan didn’t care. If they weren’t going to listen to him, he wasn’t going to listen to them.

Ryan was between jobs when he got the news. He had finally reached a remote town in the Mountain Realm, after spending a long trip being on guard and ready to fight back the frequent monsters that populated the realm. A skeleton had caught him with a lucky shot while he’d been protecting his employer from a zombie, and the arrow had been removed from his shoulder, but it still hurt like crazy. Not to mention the mild burns he had sustained from a creeper that had done well by its name.

Ryan had decided to take some time to rest and recover. It wasn’t like he’d be missing any coin from not working - mercenary work paid well, and what he got from small redstone inventions he sold in towns wasn’t bad either. He could afford the break.

When the news was released, it spread fast and was impossible to miss, an excited disbelief that a Knight would want to step down already. The first time Ryan heard of it was from a teenager who came sprinting into the tavern, calling out the news to a family member working there. Ryan had been tinkering with a new clock design that would pick up on the surrounding weather as well as the time of day, and he nearly lost the redstone wire he was placing and shorted out the circuit.

That excitement from childhood, quieted and little more than a background motivation for many years now, came bursting forward. His breath caught in his throat, chest tight with sudden nervousness, and Ryan had to set down his tools before he messed something up, staring at them in surprise.

Ryan had heard so frequently that it would never happen, that Jeremy had only been there for eighty years now and the Knights rarely held a trial more often than once a century, oftentimes longer. But here it was, his chance, earlier than anyone had expected and at a very good time for him. Even if it hadn’t come up for another twenty or thirty years, Ryan would’ve tried for it, but it would’ve been a long shot. Right now, he was only in his early thirties, he was doing amazing physically and mentally, there wasn’t really a much better time.

“When are they holding the trial?” Ryan asked, turning in his chair to address the teenager. They paused midway through a sentence, a bit surprised, before their face lit up.

“They’re taking candidates in two weeks, in Achievement City! Are you going to go?” they asked, and when Ryan nodded, they took a step closer, practically shaking with excitement. “Are you gonna be in it, or just going to watch?”

Before Ryan could answer, the woman behind the bar said, “Taylor, leave the man alone, let him work. You’ve got some work to do, too, don’t you?” The kid looked annoyed and torn, but then sighed and ran off again. Ryan could hear them shouting about the Knight Trial as they left.

Two weeks. After waiting for thirty years, two weeks seemed like nothing. It was so close. It would also take Ryan most of that time to get to the capital again, starting from way out at the outskirts of the realm. He could take just a couple days to recover from his previous trip, but getting to Achievement City on time was going to be a constant urge in the back of his mind.

The days leading up to his travel back to the city weren’t as restful as he’d originally intended. Ryan stayed up longer than he should’ve, finishing up plans he’d slowly been adding onto for a large-scale redstone powered defense system that he had yet to test on a large scale but was practically guaranteed to work, after all the editing and model testing he’d put into it over the years. He also tested his limits with swordplay, which considering recent injuries he wasn’t quite up to the point he wanted to be, but pushing too hard and ruining his shoulder wasn’t going to help.

The trip itself was one that Ryan had taken multiple times by now, and he knew the route well. He hadn’t often traveled it alone, however, and was careful of where he set up camp. It was easiest to travel at night and sleep during the day, when most of the monsters would be unable to come out, and it was in this manner that Ryan made his way to Achievement City.

As he got closer, the roads became more populated, more crowded, and the words on everyone’s lips had to do with the trial. He remembered the tournament drawing a lot of attention, but this was a much larger scale. Getting into Achievement City was difficult, the sheer number of people made navigation nearly impossible, and Ryan was grateful that he’d thought to buy a small house there years ago that essentially served as his home base whenever he made it back there. Finding a room at the inn would be impossible.

Registration to enter the trial was a nightmare. There were all kinds of people there, hoping for their chance to get in, and Ryan grew more and more nervous as he worked his way through the process. Getting registered as a candidate wasn’t difficult, but maintaining that status was, from everything Ryan had read and studied over the years. Anyone could enter, but ninety percent of people would be gone from the running by the end of the first few days. It was rare for more than ten people to make it to the real challenges, and that was ten people out of hundreds. Though he didn’t need to worry at all.

The preliminary trial was little more than a condensed version of the entire challenge. Once everyone was properly registered, groups were seen and reviewed, and people were eliminated at a quick pace. Though considering the large number of people, quick still took a few days. Anyone who showed they couldn’t use a weapon as they’d promised - the kids who couldn’t keep a proper stance or were set on using a sword too big for them, fighters who had aged past their prime and were lacking in reflexes or maneuverability, archers that struggled to keep the arrow set on the bow properly before firing - they were picked out first. Ryan was able to maintain his position among the sword fighters with ease.

After that was a test of unique skill sets, again pulling out people who either had skills that wouldn’t be beneficial to running the kingdom (such as the girl who had put her special knowledge as juggling), or those that failed to do what they had promised. Ryan had a collection of small redstone creations and inventions, all properly branded with his mark and with blueprints and plans to go with them, and he was cleared quickly.

Anyone who had a bad attitude toward the people who ran the event was kicked out, anyone found to be starting fights or sabotaging others was made to leave. Ryan watched so many people drop out of the running in the first couple of days, always worried that he’d misstep and join them, but instead he climbed up to the top listing of candidates. By the time the trail was ready to fully begin, Ryan was one of nine involved.

The first day of the trial itself, there were butterflies in Ryan’s stomach as he fastened his sword to his hip and his fingers ran quickly over his armor buckles with the ease of familiarity. It was much more real now, the fact that he could join the Knights. The dream he’d held onto for most of his life, that so many people said he should abandon, was within reach. He just had to not fuck it up.

As with the preliminaries, the candidates were set to show off their physical prowess in combat first. Ryan was in the majority of sword users, but there were also two archers and one woman who favored a battleaxe. This particular trial was to take place in the same outdoor arena where the Kings Tournaments were held, and as Ryan stepped through the side door he’d entered through about twenty-five years previously so he could set off a firework, his nervousness was pushed aside by his excitement.

Ryan knew what to expect. He knew it would be a fight, facing off against the normal monsters of the land, proving his ability. He did that in so many of his travels that he didn’t even consider it anymore, was no longer concerned about much more than being ambushed out in the wilderness, but even that wasn’t a real concern in an arena. He’d know what he was fighting, what to expect, going into it. And Ryan could do that.

The prospective Knights took turns, and Ryan was near the beginning of the order, since they were doing it alphabetically. As he waited, Ryan could hear shouts and cheers of the crowd echoing through the arena, he could hear someone announcing faintly over it all, and he quietly stretched and prepared himself. It didn’t take long before his name was called and Ryan took a deep breath, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, and stepped out into the field.

The throne had been removed from the arena, which was rather impressive, as Ryan remembered it being massive and likely made out of very heavy materials. A covering was stretched high above his head, casting a heavy shadow down on the field, with a couple open sections where light shone through in bright pillars. As Ryan entered, there was a shout from the crowd, and he looked at all the people staring at him, suddenly awkward.

That feeling only got worse when he noticed a small section off to one side, in the centerline of the arena, where the five remaining Knights watched. Ryan’s steps faltered for a second, and he dug a hand into his pocket to touch the small golden cube he’d kept on himself since childhood, worn down from years of him fiddling with it.

Once the actual combat started, Ryan had no time to worry about his awkwardness or nerves. There was a bell to signal the start, and Ryan glanced around, pulling his sword free as a zombie appeared at the other end of the field. The thick covering kept it from being affected by the sunlight as it would usually, and Ryan stared at it for a moment. A single zombie wasn’t exactly a challenge, and he was on guard for things getting harder around him, but he supposed it was a good starting point.

Zombies were easy. They bit hard, but it was easy to not get bitten, as they weren’t exceptionally dexterous. Ryan hadn’t had a real problem with a zombie for many years now, and it was easy to take out. As soon as it was dead and fading on the ground, Ryan caught the rattle of bones and turned on his heel, ducking low as an arrow fired over his head. Two skeletons stared at him with their empty eye sockets, boney fingers grasping bows and going through the movements of an archer, albeit a relatively inexperienced one, while a zombie shambled up behind them.

Ryan kept low, moving quickly and circling the monsters. The zombie moved forward without a care for anything but Ryan, while the skeletons failed to hit a small, fast moving target. Ryan kept his attention flicking between the zombie and the skeletons, trying to get it lined up just right, and then stopping in his tracks as soon as he was good.

The skeletons lined up their shots and fired, and while one arrow went wide, the other found its mark in the zombie’s back. The zombie stopped, turning to see what had hit it, and went instead for the skeleton as it posed the biggest threat. Ryan grinned, letting the skeleton and zombie sort out their differences as he went for the other skeleton.

The main problem with fighting skeletons was getting close without getting shot, but Ryan had worked out a good rhythm to achieve it. Ducking, rolling, and weaving were usually enough to get Ryan close, and he could go through it quickly. Skeletons were bad at quickly adjusting their aim, and once they were set to a location, as long as Ryan wasn’t there a second later, they wouldn’t hit anything.

It wasn’t too difficult to dismember the skeleton, and then finish off the zombie that had won its own duel. Ryan’s heartbeat sounded in his ears, the rush of adrenaline that came from a fight, and his ears strained to hear anything past the crowd, which was little more than a dull roar in the background to his senses at the moment.

Turning in place, Ryan just caught a flash of light reflected off of something before glass shattered at his feet and a cloud of fumes exploded outward. He coughed and gagged, backpedalling out of the poisonous cloud and lifting his sleeve to cover his mouth and nose. A witch cackled nearby as Ryan fought of the nausea that was rising from the explosive poison, and he paused for a moment.

Witches were rare, even in his line of work, at least those that were technically classified as monsters and not people who practiced and studied magic. The monstrous witches looked and sounded human but were hardly that, twisted and corrupted humans that had little in mind besides attacking those they ran into. Ryan had fought back enough to have a general idea of what to do, but he wasn’t particularly experienced.

Ryan charged at the witch, going for speed and strength over real tactics, as he’d realized it was mostly important to get rid of a witch before it could get another potion out to use. A lot of people had problems killing a witch because they seemed so human, it was difficult for many people to harm one without feeling guilty. Though Ryan had never faced such dilemmas himself - it was dangerous, it was trying to kill him, so he would kill it first. Easy.

He struck hard and fast, removing one of its hands as it reached for its belt of potions, and then its head. It fell and started to dissolve before it even hit the ground and Ryan looked around warily. As he turned on the spot, other monsters appeared - a creeper, two zombies, two skeletons, an enderman - and Ryan breathed, “Shit.”

The enderman wasn’t a problem. It would just get in the way until Ryan attacked it or looked at its eyes, and he resolutely kept his eyes at the level of its torso. That would be the last to be dealt with. The creeper, however, could do some damage. They weren’t too difficult to fight on their own, but when avoiding other creatures, it was easy to lose track of the silent moving monster.

An arrow whizzed by his head and Ryan ducked down, trying to keep an eye on all five monsters at once, which was near impossible with them so spread out. He needed to get them together.

Ryan ducked his head and ran, heading for one edge of the arena. He swerved around the reaching arms of a zombie, serpentining so that he was harder for the skeletons to hit, and slid to a stop at the tall stone wall. Ryan spun around, taking in the situation as a plan formed in his head. One of the zombies and skeletons were a little closer than the others, while the enderman slowly wandered at the opposite end of the arena.

Now facing the monsters, Ryan slowly started circling them, keeping them far enough back to not get hit by a zombie or to trigger the creeper into exploding. He just needed a clear shot at the creeper without getting caught by one of the others. The zombies shuffled after him, set on reaching him, but Ryan was mostly focused on the creeper.

It took a moment, but then Ryan saw his opening, diving forward and jabbing at the creeper with his sword. The creeper hissed and started to swell and Ryan shifted backward, waiting until the last moment, until the creeper was too far gone to quiet itself. It was dangerous, the timing was never exact, but Ryan knew what to look for.

Just before the creeper blew, Ryan threw himself back and onto the ground, covering his head as the explosion sounded nearby. Dirt rained down on him, and his side burned faintly from catching the edge of the blast. He moved his arms and looked up at a small crater in the field, and a lone enderman wandering the far side.

Grinning, Ryan got to his feet, ignoring the tightness of his side beneath the singed clothing. Just the enderman left. Ryan got his sword ready and ran forward. He could feel himself waning, could tell the quick fights were wearing on him, it was difficult to fight for a long time. It was best to get this over with as quickly as possible.

Ryan didn’t hesitate, running his sword through the enderman. Its sharp-toothed mouth fell open and it screamed before disappearing in a purple haze. He waited for a second, listening, but he didn’t quite catch the enderman’s approach before its claws raked down his back. Ryan grimaced and spun, his sword tearing through the enderman and making it teleport again. He’d waited too long, had given the monster just a little too much time - Ryan needed to react quicker next time.

Now. Spinning on his heel, Ryan drove his sword up into the enderman’s open jaw. It screamed again, more high-pitched, and Ryan shoved upward as hard as he could. The enderman glared down at him, shuddered and flickered in place, and then faded away. Ryan looked around cautiously, and his head snapped up at a bell that rang out over the arena.

The sound of the crowd crashed over him as Ryan’s careful focus shattered, excited cheers and shouts as whoever was announcing praised Ryan on his quick and efficient swordwork against the enderman, even if it had managed to sneak in a blow. The entrance that Ryan had come through had been closed behind him, probably to keep monsters from going inside, and it opened up.

Ryan looked around at the crowd and lifted his sword, his injuries twinging painfully, before he left the arena. Having all the shouts and attention focused on him, it felt good, and he wanted to stay and be around it more, but he couldn’t. With any luck, he could be in there again.

A healer saw to Ryan once he left the arena, and he gladly let them treat the burns and claw marks, while hoping that none of it would ruin his chances of becoming a Knight. Everyone got surprised by an attack at some point, surely it couldn’t count against him too much. Though it also depended on how well everyone else did against all the monsters.

There was a break that lasted a couple days, to allow the fighters a chance to rest and prepare for one of the parts Ryan was most unsure of. Not only was he going to meet one of the Knights, a personal one-on-one meeting, but he also had to show what skill he’d worked on mastering. His redstone inventions and creations, his blueprints for a monster defense system, and Ryan didn’t know if it was actually something special or if any redstone engineer could accomplish it.

The day of the meeting, Ryan triple checked everything he was taking, while his stomach twisted itself into anxious knots. He’d finished his clock prototype, a small automated watering system for personal plants that could easily be expanded to work with large-scale farms, and a redstone powered lantern. Then there were a few blueprints as well, some of them half-formed and in need of modifications, others finished but not yet constructed.

Ryan had been told that the meeting was going to take place within the Achievement City castle itself, and he couldn’t help but gawk at it as he got close. He’d seen it in the distance, it was huge and difficult to miss as long as you were within the city, but Ryan had never been up close, and certainly never beyond the outer wall.

A couple armored guardsmen stood outside, keeping excited and curious people from flooding the courtyard, and Ryan maneuvered his way through the small, gathered crowd a bit awkwardly. A large tube typically used for maps was slung over his shoulder, a couple small inventions hanging from straps at his belt, and the others resting gently in a box that he carried in his arms.

The guardsmen only stopped him briefly for identification, and they seemed to take pity on him while Ryan apologized profusely and tried to juggle his redstone collection in order to grab the pass he’d been given for this very thing. When Ryan nearly dropped his box and only one of the guard’s quick reflexes saved it, one of them gently took the box from his arms, and Ryan smiled at them as he dug out his pass.

It was a lot quieter once Ryan passed into the courtyard itself and approached the castle. It towered overhead, a massive stone construction with green and black accent pieces and the green star of the kingdom formed in a stain glass window on the front. The doors were open and inviting, and people moved in and out and throughout the courtyard with little apparent care for the crowds and excitement just on the other side of the gates.

Ryan had general directions to where he was going, but had to stop two different people and ask where he was going, since his instructions were also tucked into a pocket he couldn’t reach. That and his nerves kept telling him that he was going to go the wrong way, and end up in the wrong place, and he’d be late or get overlooked entirely.

A young page stood outside the door that Ryan was directed to, and he ducked his head inside as Ryan approached, announcing, “Ryan Haywood, from the Spring Realm.” Ryan shifted the box in his arms, his muscles aching from carrying it so far, and tried to nudge a stray hair into submission with his shoulder. The page held the door and gestured for Ryan to enter, and Ryan let out a breath before stepping inside.

The room beyond was a comfortable sitting room, a lot more informal than Ryan had expected. A large fireplace provided warmth and light, the flames flickering in the gentle breeze that came through the open windows. Plants grew around the edges of the room, a cabinet sat full of different bottles and glasses, and trophies hung from walls and sat out on display. Weapons, old books, items made of gems and precious metals, glowing potions, ender pearls, the heads of slain mobs, among a myriad of other collectables.

In front of the fireplace was a small table and a handful of plush armchairs set around it. Two of them were occupied by a couple of the Knights. Ryan’s steps faltered for a moment, he didn’t think he’d be showing his inventions to two of them, he was told it was just one. But he shoved aside the nervous fear as the door closed behind him, and met the eyes of the Knights.

Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo, the oldest two Knights to ever serve the kingdom, watched Ryan enter. They wore fine clothing, but it wasn’t heavily decorative or ceremonial like they were often seen wearing while in public. Geoff reclined comfortably in his seat, and Jack rose quickly and took the box from Ryan’s arms, setting it down on the table.

“Thanks,” Ryan said, and he found the word catching in his throat, leaving a lot quieter and strained than he’d intended. He cleared his throat self-consciously and Jack smiled at him, holding out a hand.

“It’s good to meet you, Ryan,” he said, as Ryan slowly grabbed his hand and shook it firmly. He’d expected something more formal, like needing to bow or something, not a handshake.

“It’s, uh, good to meet you, too,” he said, gripping the strap of his blueprint case for something to do with his hands.

“Have you healed fine after the fight?” Geoff asked. “That enderman caught you pretty good, it looked like.”

Ryan blinked at him, surprised, and then nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. I deal with worse things than that all the time - it didn’t really do too much damage,” he said. It also helped that the capital had some accomplished healers residing there to speed along the recovery process.

“Really? What is it you do, then?” Jack asked, gesturing for Ryan to take a seat in the spare armchair. Ryan did so, pulling the blueprints from his back and holding them in his lap.

“I’m a mercenary. I escort people through the realms and keep them safe from monsters and bandits and the like,” Ryan explained. Geoff and Jack glanced at each other and Ryan arched an eyebrow, unsure if he’d said something out of place.

Geoff shifted in his seat, sitting more upright. “That certainly sounds exciting, if nothing else,” he said. He gestured to the box on the table and asked, “So what’ve you got in your box here?”

Introducing the Knights to his inventions was initially worrying, but Ryan quickly warmed up and found himself rambling through explanations, eager to have someone to listen. After he’d finished his apprenticeship, Ryan had found very few people who were genuinely interested in his craft. Sometimes he’d get people asking what he was working on, but they wouldn’t stay interested long past Ryan’s initial description of it. Jack and Geoff weren’t like that.

At first, Ryan was prepared to just do a simple explanation and move on, but then the Knights started asking questions. What could this be used for, was it simple to create, what circuits and systems went into it, how easy was it to operate or repair? Every question emboldened Ryan and he talked for what felt like hours, breaking down the creation process for certain inventions, showing the inner workings of his completed ones, marking out pertinent areas on blueprints as new questions arose and sharing the obstacles he was running into, as well as initial thoughts on how to get past them.

Finally, Ryan came to the end of explaining his defense system and started gathering up all of his things that had found their way scattered across the table. Jack and Geoff helped him put everything back, and before Ryan left, Jack asked, “So what made you want to become a Knight?”

Ryan paused in sliding the blueprints into their tube, and then shrugged, popping the top on. “I’ve always wanted to be a Knight. When I was a kid, my dad and I came to see one of the Kings Tournaments, and I got to set off the fireworks. And Geoff gave me this.” He pulled the small, worn cube of gold out of his pocket, its edges rounded and warped as constant contact had smoothed out the soft metal.

Geoff looked at the gold in Ryan’s hands then up to his face, as realization dawned in his eyes. “You were the kid that stuck around on the field! I remember you,” he said, and Ryan smiled, putting the gold back in his pocket. “I’m surprised you kept that. Most people would’ve sold it or lost it by now.”

“No way,” Ryan said, patting his pocket. “It keeps me on track. I’ve been working toward this since that tournament, and there aren’t a great many people who have had good things to say about it. And now, well, I really appreciate the chance to be doing this.”

Jack smiled warmly at him. “It’s been wonderful talking to you. You’re certainly very talented.” He and Geoff stood, Ryan hurrying to follow suit, replacing his blueprints on his back. He shook their hands, thanked them for listening, and hauled his redstone collection out of the room and back to where he was staying.

The end of the trial took place amidst a festival that ran through the streets. The final portion was a small test, mostly to see if the candidates had sufficient prior knowledge of the kingdom they would be helping to run. As it wasn’t something that asked for spectators, the people of the Kingdom of the Star started celebrations early, in preparation for the Knight announcement. Ryan didn’t remember much of the rest of the trial, the test itself was far from memorable, except that his travels had granted him more than enough knowledge to breeze through it quickly.

The wait afterwards was what Ryan remembered. It was long and nerve wracking and horrible, and it stretched on for two days. He tried to distract himself with the festival, with his inventions, with practicing swordplay, anything he could think of. But constant worry ate at his gut, and he felt ready to explode by the time the announcement was to be held.

Ryan was up and dressed early that day. He didn’t have any particularly nice clothing, but he dressed the best he could, and fastened his sword to his belt alongside the small redstone contraptions he kept with him. He checked himself over multiple times before he left, fixing his hair and adjusting his clothing, things he hadn’t cared about throughout the trial no matter how many people were watching. But today it might matter.

Once more he made his way to the outdoor arena, as it was the only place that would be able to hold so many spectators. Even though he tried to get there far ahead of time, crowds of eager citizens had beaten him to it, and he got a large number of well wishes as he hurried inside.

Eventually, after the other eight candidates arrived and what seemed like an even longer wait, the nine of them were told to go out onto the field. Ryan’s hands were shaking and he wrapped one around the pommel of his sword, the other curled into a fist to try and stop it, as he stepped into the arena and among the cheering crowd for the third time in his life.

The throne had been returned to its rightful place in the center of the field, and King Geoff held his place on it, looking down at the nine candidates that entered. The other four Knights stood below him, two on either side of the throne. Ryan knew them all, if not personally, then through the stories he’d devoured since childhood. Being there in front of them all didn’t help his nerves.

Geoff stood on the platform the throne sat on, raising his hands, and the crowd quieted a bit at the gesture. “Thank you everyone for being here,” he said, his voice magically amplified to carry throughout the arena. “We’re all here because we’re down a Knight, and we could really use the help. After a number of trials, and a lot of discussion amongst ourselves, we’ve come to a decision as to who will join the ranks of the Knights and sit over the Spring Realm.”

He started down the steps, his heavy cloak trailing behind him and the light glinting off his simple crown as he moved. Geoff paused at the bottom of the stairs, taking a goblet from the hands of Jeremy Dooley, until now the most recent Knight over the Magic Realm. Ryan found himself straightening as Geoff approached the line of candidates, and one of Ryan’s hands fell behind his back, fingers crossed as tight as he could.

There was a tense moment where Geoff stopped in front of them and slowly looked between each of them, a coy smile on his face, practically teasing them with the wait. Then he stepped forward and held out the goblet to Ryan, who could only stare back.

“Well, take it,” Geoff said, bouncing the goblet up and down, and Ryan could hear the laughter in his voice. Ryan slowly reached out and took the goblet, his body practically working on autopilot as his brain struggled to catch up. “You’re gonna want to drink that.”

The liquid inside was a swirl of blues and greens and purples, a galaxy inside a cup, and Ryan looked at it for a moment before downing the goblet. It tasted sharp and bitter, and Ryan gagged, shoving the goblet back toward Geoff. As it went down, though, a warmth radiated out from Ryan’s chest, throughout his body, and he wasn’t sure if he was now shaking from excitement and relief, or as an effect of whatever he’d just ingested.

“Welcome the newest Knight, Ryan Haywood of the Spring Realm!” Geoff declared, and a deafening roar shook the arena. The other candidates congratulated Ryan, though most with disappointment or disdain in their eyes after their loss, and then Ryan was pulled away to greet the other Knights.

The next couple of months were a flurry of activity as Ryan was introduced to his new position. He was shown around the castle and to his own quarters within it, which were a far cry from the places he was used to. The house above the butchershop of his childhood, the workshop of his mentor, the various inns he’d stayed in during his travels, none of it came close to the massive space that he had just for himself.

He met the other Knights, which was almost a terrifying thing to face after so much time spent idolizing these men. Most of his initial introductions were full of flubs and restarted sentences as he tried to properly string words together, but he found that he warmed up to them quickly.

Outside of the public eye, Geoff just seemed tired but still in good spirits most of the time. He was the one that made sure Ryan was up to date on the laws of not just the kingdom, but ones specific to his realm as well. Ryan had the benefit of previous knowledge of the Spring Realm, but there was still a lot to cover, and he and Geoff spent many afternoons together, reviewing and just talking.

Jack was the Knight over the Forest Realm, a master carpenter and, it seemed, the voice of the people. He was bright and cheerful and eager to help, but also just as willing to jump on a strange mix-up of words that fell from Ryan’s lips or make a quick joke. He handled citizen concerns and messages that were sent to the Knights, and showed Ryan where to find certain ones, and which were important to try and address immediately and which could wait.

Michael was the Knight over the Mountain Realm, and a seasoned warrior and strategist. His main knowledge lay in battles and military power and protection, none of which was particularly prevalent within the Spring Realm. He was fun and easy going, though he got irritable and short tempered if things didn’t turn out how he wanted, or if people (particularly Gavin) got exceptionally annoying. For the most part, Ryan met with him to spar and work on weapons training, and though Ryan was nearly unmatched with a blade, Michael suggested learning other ways of fighting just in case it came down to it.

Gavin, for his part, was the one Knight that Ryan couldn’t quite figure out what his purpose was. He ruled over the Sun Realm, a quiet realm that held a number of wind farms but was otherwise only known for their people’s prowess with a bow. Gavin didn’t seem to have a particular skillset that helped the kingdom as a whole, instead flitting around between everyone else. He would interrupt with ridiculous stories and more outlandish questions, distracting people with conversation and easy jokes, and Ryan found it amusing to humor some of his odder conversation starters.

It was Jeremy that he got along best with. As the previous newbie, Jeremy was more than happy to help Ryan through the process of figuring everything out and understanding what was going on. The small Knight was a little off-putting, with his dark robes and potions and a faint bitter smell that followed him from his brewing stand or altar, but Ryan was intrigued by him and what he did. Jeremy was a master of magic, twisting the very nature of the world to his whim if he wanted, and Ryan enjoyed spending time with him and trying to decipher what it was Jeremy was doing.

As for Ryan, the job that fell on him was resource management. As the Spring Realm was the primary location of farms and ranches, he needed to know what was going on and what might affect the kingdom. How to determine if a harvest would be plentiful enough, if there would be enough healthy livestock, what kinds of environments and situations bred what dangers, and how to handle it. Geoff and Jack mostly helped him with this part as well, though Ryan studied on his own more often than not, reading through books and previous years’ notes left by the last Knight.

It was difficult for Ryan initially, but he quickly got the hang of it, falling into a rhythm. Despite the size of the kingdom and the amount of work that went into keeping it running smoothly, all of the Knights had ample time to relax and do what they wanted with their free time. Which for Geoff, at least, meant planning another tournament.

Ryan had only been a Knight for a year when the tournament was declared. The first tournament he was to participate in, and it still didn’t even feel like he was that much of a Knight. But his excitement mounted again, an excitement shared by the lads. Gavin talked endlessly about previous challenges Geoff had come up with, how they were all really easy, except for the ones that Geoff stole from Gavin, of course. Michael had an easy confidence about himself, while also joining in with Gavin on trying to guess what Geoff was planning. Jeremy tried to devise ways to win and earn the crown himself for the first time, a rather amusing thing to witness when all Jeremy had to go off of was past experience and Gavin and Michael’s predictions.

It was the first time Ryan had properly dressed himself up for the public eye, and it felt strange. He kept his black and red combination, with a bit of white to stand out in stark contrast. His shirt and jacket were simple but good material, light and flowy, and he had a thick belt with custom straps and connections for the redstone powered items he carried with him. A cloak fell over his shoulders, nearly long enough to touch the ground, though perhaps his favorite part was the lightweight, crafted cow skull that fastened to one shoulder, a choice made for an amusing aesthetic and also because the reactions he got were funny.

When Ryan stepped foot on that field once more, alongside the other Knights, was when it finally struck him that he’d done it. All the work and time spent at the castle was one thing, it definitely was part of being a Knight, but this moment right here was what every child dreamt of. No longer was he a child king issuing commands in the school yard, but instead he stood amongst his heroes with an actual crown within reach.

Like he’d seen years ago, Geoff sat on the ornate golden throne, his crown gleaming on his head. Once the other Knights arrived, he stood to address the crowd, and the tournament started. Gavin had been right that the challenges were rather simple in their design, from going to collect a piece of woolen cloth left in the nearby grove, to a foot race to the edge of the city and back.

Ryan gave it everything he had, determined to do well and prove himself, even if there was little left to prove at this point. Slowly, he gathered gold blocks on his small podium, and rivaled only by Michael, went into the last challenge Geoff provided. Go to the full Tower within the city and be the first to hang a sign saying that they were there.

When it came down to it, Ryan wasn’t sure how he managed it. Michael had beat him out at the original foot race, and knew Achievement City far better than Ryan did solely due to the large amount of time he’d spent there. And yet Ryan ended up just a second ahead of Michael, snatching one of the waiting pieces of paper first to scrawl “Ryan was here”. Ultimately, the slight lead Ryan had over Michael, and his shorter name, gave him the win.

“Aw, come on! Your name is so much easier to write!” Michael protested, but he was grinning as he clapped Ryan on the shoulder.

“Ryan  _ won _ ?” Gavin shouted in disbelief as he came skidding into the square, just ahead of Jeremy and Jack. “That’s got to be a record or something, becoming King in just a few months.”

“I still haven’t become King…” Jeremy sighed, looking pitifully at the sign hanging on the Tower.

“You know, technically, Geoff became King faster,” Jack said as they made their way much more leisurely back toward the arena. “He was a King as soon as he was a Knight.”

Gavin scoffed. “Geoff made up the damn King thing, didn’t he. That doesn’t  _ count _ ,” he insisted.

Ryan was giddy with his victory and couldn’t suppress his grin as they reached the arena again, and he was gently nudged toward the stairs to the throne. He started up the steps, having to force himself not to just run up them, and met Geoff halfway.

Geoff shook his hand, matching Ryan’s grin. “That was pretty impressive,” he said, as he lifted the crown from his head and placed it on Ryan’s. “My King.” He gave a highly exaggerated and ridiculous bow that made Ryan snort out a laugh, before passing and continuing down the steps to join the other Knights.

Ryan rode the high of his victory for days afterwards, amazed that he’d ever gotten as far as becoming King. Which was more of an honorary title, when it came down to it, and a reason for extravagant celebrations throughout the Spring Realm. With the title of King, Ryan’s work hardly changed. He still managed resources and kept track of weather patterns and crop yields, still monitored trade routes and collaborated with Michael on their protection. All that really changed was that he was the person to turn to when a disagreement rose up.

The first time it happened, Michael and Gavin were unable to agree on the proper measures to take against the growing creeper population plaguing the Sun Realm. Ryan didn’t mind stepping in with his own thoughts on how to handle it, since fighting was something that he knew fairly well, and was pleased when the compromise he offered was agreed upon and listened to. Those ones were easy, ones where Ryan knew what he was adding to the conversation, and knew it was something that he could accurately give feedback on.

The ones that made him nervous and uncomfortable were ones that pertained to laws. He’d learned the laws, he’d read through them and at least knew where to look for answers if he forgot a detail. But when Geoff and Jack were torn on a decision, and whether or not it was supported by existing laws or a misuse of them, Ryan was hesitant. It was more surprising to him that they listened then, when Ryan was so new and barely had experience running the kingdom, than when anyone else had listened to him before.

What Ryan was starting to realize was that people actually paid attention to the King, and unless he actually screwed up or misspoke, no one contradicted him. It was strange, being listened to so completely. Not even the people he’d worked for as a mercenary were willing to put that much faith in him, and they had paid him for his expertise and opinion, since many people seemed to think they always knew better. But Ryan found no contention while he reigned.

Besides assisting his fellow Knights within the castle, the most notable part of Ryan’s reign as King was his work alongside Michael and Jack to fully construct the redstone powered defense system that he’d been perfecting in his blueprints. These went up first in the Spring Realm, to ward off monsters from farms and ranches, and spare some of the farmers’ hard work from destruction. Then work started on helping the Sun Realm, offering protection from the creepers. They were simple systems that would detect a monster and fire arrows or briefly flood an area with water to keep them at bay, but they were effective.

By the time the next King Tournament came around, roughly ten years after the first, Ryan had earned his King title - the Redstone King. It was reflected in the crown, which Ryan had quickly learned was imbued with some form of magic, as it changed shape to suit the wearer. When Ryan earned his title, the crown added clusters of red gems in a winding trail around the edge to match it.

Organizing a tournament was one of the hardest things that Ryan ended up doing in his time as King. He looked into past tournaments, drawing ideas from previous challenges, and spent a lot of time on his own planning things in secret. Ryan didn’t want to overstep or do something that would be frowned upon, and though there had been some dangerous and even deadly challenges presented in the past, he kept his relatively tame, so as not to upset someone with his first tournament rule.

Addressing a crowd was still nerve-wracking, something that even now Ryan had little practice with. He’d spoken to small gatherings of people while visiting the different realms to oversee the defense construction, but that had been simple and easy, perhaps a town’s worth of citizens at most. The arena, however, held far more than that, and there were so many eyes resting on Ryan as the tournament started.

It took powering through a number of twisted words and jumbled thoughts, where he could see the other Knights stifling their laughter and muttering quiet comments to each other about it, but he did it in the end. And the first tournament held by King Ryan took off.

Once again, Ryan was surprised and rather pleased with how quickly the others listened to him, no matter what he presented them with. Get a piece of meat and cook it in the court, bring a stray cat from the city, be the first to reach the top of the stairs to the throne (pushing people off was certainly allowed), teleport to a specific location using an ender pearl, craft a potion. Each of these was taken on eagerly by the other Knights as they fought for the gold block Ryan handed out.

By the time the final block was handed to an ecstatic Jeremy, Ryan was rather disappointed to see it come to an end. He enjoyed having people listen to him, look up to him as an authority, pay attention to what he said and thought. And though he still sat in an authoritative position as a Knight, it would be one where he would have to defer to someone else sometimes, or people were more prone to tearing apart his thoughts and arguments with their own.

Even if he was passing the crown off to the man who’d become one of Ryan’s closest friends over the years, Jeremy who still had not won a single tournament up until this point and would certainly make a good King, Ryan was upset and faintly bitter over losing his position among the Knights.

The next few years, Ryan focused on his redstone inventions, upgrading the defenses, helping to design and build more for different locations, working on new plans to help automate crop harvest and the slaughter of livestock to make it go faster and help farmers that were struggling. The construction took a lot of his time, but he enjoyed it, as it was something he could fully control and manage more or less on his own.

After a decade of being on the top, from first previously being an easily overlooked and ignored person within the kingdom, Ryan didn’t necessarily enjoy being knocked back down a step. It wasn’t that Jeremy was bad at being a King, he did very well and was always great to be around. But really, it was frustrating to go from being listened to and respected, to having a heated argument with Gavin over what was and wasn’t possible with redstone that needed Jeremy to step in and fix.

The next tournament win went to Michael, and though Ryan laughed and joked and congratulated him, he was disappointed in himself for not doing better and reaching that position again. But he told himself he’d get it next time, he’d do better, and get himself back in a position where the others respected his opinions a little bit more.

King Michael’s tournament was the first one where Ryan personally encountered the death of a Knight. It had happened in the past, whether accidentally or due to a fight with monsters or other tournament challenges, but it had yet to happen when it involved Ryan. Michael called for a fight to the death, and Ryan was surprised at how the others were just as eager to comply with this as they were to go pick a flower. No one batted an eye.

Ryan had learned over the years that aging and injuries worked differently amongst the Knights. Though it had been about thirty years by now since Ryan had joined the ranks, he hadn’t physically aged a day. Not necessarily surprising, when considering the fact that Geoff had been around since the creation of the kingdom and was fine and well, but it was certainly strange. Any injuries he sustained from work or sparring matches healed up practically overnight, if Ryan took good care of himself, and that included old scars or aches he’d gathered from his work as a mercenary.

He knew how the Knights’ bodies reacted to general strain, but not how they fixed death.

The win for the round went to Ryan, in the end, after he drove his sword through Gavin. He felt guilty, the only one left standing within the arena, even as the crowd cheered and hollered. At least, until a minute later when Gavin sat up and put a hand to his rapidly healing chest wound and whined, “Ryan. That hurt, Ryan. And you ruined my shirt.”

The deaths were brushed aside, laughed off with critiques about swordplay and poking fun at ridiculous noises that others had done, and Ryan was surprised. The King asked for people to die, and they were happy to do so, and came back with not a care in the world. Meanwhile in most circumstances, a Knight requesting the same thing would face laughter as if they’d made a joke themselves.

Michael’s challenges ended up being a breeze for Ryan. Any that involved fighting, he tore through with ease - though the others were skilled fighters themselves, Michael seemed to favor swords over anything, and Ryan was the only one who maintained a regular training schedule with the weapon, save for Michael. Jack and Geoff didn’t keep up with it as much, while Gavin favored bows and Jeremy preferred the splash potions he created.

In the end, Ryan got what he was hoping for. The fourth gold block was set up on his small tower, and Ryan eagerly took the crown back once more. There were mostly joking complaints about how Ryan was just never going to let someone else get a turn now that he was a Knight, and Ryan laughed along with them, but somewhere in the back of his mind he rather liked that idea. It was unrealistic, of course he’d pass on the crown and the title of King once more, but it at least was an amusing daydream.

Little changed during Ryan’s second reign, compared to his first. He worked on his redstone, he mediated arguments and solved problems as they arose, and when the time came, he started planning for another tournament. This one was different, with more redstone incorporated into it. He was curious how far he could go before meeting resistance with the other Knights, what they would or wouldn’t object to, and started playing with some unorthodox ideas.

There was a lot of quiet construction done in secret, preparations made far ahead of time that Ryan had to try and hide from prying eyes until the time came to unveil it. Overall, he was rather proud of what he created, though most unsure about the final task that he’d lined up. Of all of them, it was likely that one that was pushing the boundaries the most.

Ryan’s second tournament was brutal and difficult, and yet the Knights hardly batted an eye at the challenges he’d come up with. A free for all brawl of his own, with any weapons that the Knights wanted to use. Reaching the end of a redstone powered obstacle course that resulted in a number of injuries due to falling or misstepping. An entire room built solely as a roulette chamber where the last man standing was deemed the victor.

There were some complaints, but they were mostly done as jokes. Loud whining from Gavin about how difficult something was, cut off by Michael’s, “Well maybe if you didn’t have two left feet, you would’ve been fine!” Geoff throwing himself dramatically to the ground after finishing the obstacle course, declaring that his legs would no longer be working now, thanks  _ Ryan _ . But they really took it all far better than Ryan had anticipated.

Then came the finale he had been planning for.

After he gave out the fourth block to a tower, as the crowd roared and the Knights started their small celebration, Ryan lifted his hands and called, “We’re not quite done here yet.” The crowd fell into curious and confused murmuring, and his fellow Knights looked lost and confused themselves.

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, gesturing to the collection of small, mostly incomplete towers. “There’s a full tower.”

“Yes, but there’s one more challenge,” Ryan said, as the Knights exchanged looks amongst themselves. “A winner take all kind of deal.” This was it, testing his limits, seeing what all they would put up with just because Ryan was the King and therefore above the rest of them. And it wasn’t as if there wasn’t a precedent for such a thing, it had happened once or twice before, but it was hardly a common occurrence. Or even really in the spirit of the game, when it came down to it.

The noise in the arena grew again, excited conversations starting up within the crowd, and Ryan started down the steps. The other Knights didn’t seem opposed, necessarily, but they did look unsure and perhaps a bit suspicious. At least until Jack shrugged, apparently brushing it aside with the simple motion.

“Alright, what’ve you got in mind, my King?” he asked and Ryan grinned, pleased that Jack wasn’t trying to shut down his idea. He had worked hard on it, after all.

Ryan walked around to one wall of the arena and pressed a button that sat nearly flush against it. Building this addition had been a pain, and had taken a ridiculously long time and a lot of resources and manpower, mostly all his own in order to keep it secret. But he’d checked multiple times before to make sure there wasn’t anything against creating additions to the arena, including casually asking Geoff one day if there was any particular problem with it, so he’d put the effort into making it.

“Holy shit, Ryan!” Michael exclaimed as he looked through the doorway that opened, at the steps that went downward. “When the hell did you make this?”

“Over the last year or so…” Ryan said with a shrug. “But what you all need to do is simple. At the bottom of the stairs is a small maze. Within the maze is a cow, graciously donated by one of the Spring Realm ranchers, named Edgar. The cow is named Edgar, not the rancher, to clarify. The first person to find and kill Edgar wins the tournament.”

“That’s it? Go kill a cow?” Geoff asked, staring at the stairs incredulously.

Ryan nodded, grinning. “That’s it. Just kill a cow. Don’t kill each other, watch your step.” He stepped away from the doorway and gestured for them to go down the steps, and after just a moment’s pause, the Knights rushed down to hunt a cow.

As they went to the maze itself, Ryan took his place again on the throne, watching their progress on the large scrying mirrors set up along the arena walls. He hadn’t seen his maze in full operation before, there hadn’t been anyone to test it on while he was building, but the concept wasn’t too far from his town defense systems.

The path to reach Edgar was relatively straight forward, but full of arrow traps, pitfalls, lava spouts, and strong water currents that made progress difficult. He watched them all get more and more cautious as they went in, while also trying to balance it with speed to be the first to find Edgar.

Gavin ended up stumbling across Edgar’s pen, a well-lit little room where the cow was well cared for and comfortable, since Ryan wasn’t going to let the poor animal be miserable in the middle of a maze. It was Gavin who killed Edgar (Ryan would have to make sure the cow was brought up from the maze and properly handled after this), and his celebratory shouts could practically be heard echoing up from the lower level Ryan had created.

The Knights emerged from below after a few minutes, most of them singed or wet or bleeding, but Gavin triumphantly lifted his sword over his head. Jeremy looked rather dejected, since he’d originally been the winner of the tournament, and Ryan felt a bit guilty about that. But his test had worked, and he had a good basis for next time.

Which there would be, soon. He would make sure of it. There was at least another decade of going back to being a mere Knight and arguments and people dismissing him, he didn’t want it to be much longer if he could help it.

Gavin practically raced up the first steps to the throne, and visibly controlled himself to meet Ryan halfway. For just a moment, Ryan played with the thought of what would happen if he didn’t pass down the crown, but he shoved it away. Even if he didn’t want to, he still had to. He lifted it off his head and set it on Gavin’s with a thin smile and congratulations.

Not long after the tournament, Jack approached Ryan in his room, apparently displeased as he closed the door behind him. “What was that?” Jack asked, and Ryan paused the notes he was working on, looking up at Jack as innocently as he knew how.

“What was what?” he asked.

“You know what. The whole business with your ‘winner take all’ challenge,” Jack said. He crossed his arms, looking at Ryan critically. “You didn’t just pull that because you didn’t want Jeremy to win, did you?”

Ryan stared at him for a moment and then quickly shook his head. “No, of course not! I’d be happy if Jeremy won. I’m happy to see any of you win. I just read about a couple other times it had happened in the past, and I wanted to give it a shot myself, see what happened. Jeremy’s my friend, I wouldn’t intentionally undermine him like that,” Ryan protested.

Jack’s accusing look slowly softened and he nodded. “Okay. Jeremy’s pretty upset about it. And frankly, Gavin’s doing absolutely nothing to make the whole thing better. You might want to talk to him.”

“Okay, I will,” Ryan said, flashing Jack a smile before turning back to what he was working on.

For a moment, it seemed as if Jack wanted to say something else, but he shook his head and left Ryan alone.

It didn’t take long for Ryan to realize that Gavin as King drove him absolutely insane. Though Gavin tended to stick his nose in everyone else’s business and see what everyone else was doing, he hadn’t actually picked up on most particulars about running the kingdom. His suggestions and opinions were wild and ridiculous, and often punctuated with, “I know what I’m talking about, I’m the  _ King. _ ”

For the most part, Gavin seemed to be the one King that the others just kind of humored and then ignored when his back was turned, since no Gavin we can’t just change that law because we feel like it and it would be convenient. We can’t construct the town’s new stables there, it’s practically marshland and will sink, and we’re not putting it on stilts. No, the enderman problem will not go away if we “just don’t look at them”, they’re still going to be there.

Ryan tried to keep his work to himself, by now he and Michael and Jack had found good ways of working together and sorting out their own problems. His time with Jeremy rarely was an issue, as the two of them took the occasional time to teach the other their trade. And with Geoff, Ryan normally deferred to him more often than not, since it was far more likely Geoff knew what he was talking about. Unless he got scatterbrained and mixed up information and was insisting on the wrong thing.

The problem Ryan faced was when Gavin would inevitably pop up, as he usually did to see what was going on, and impart his wisdom on whatever Ryan was doing. He rarely knew what he was talking about, suggesting things that Ryan could build or new projects to work on that were physically impossible but “they would look cool!” Whenever Ryan shot him down, Gavin would more often than not whine that he was the King, so Ryan should at least try, for him.

It mostly seemed to be jokes, Gavin didn’t seem overly concerned whether or not the other Knights fully listened to him and his suggestions, and everyone else brushed it aside. Ryan, however, got to a point where he found it extremely irritating, and he wanted nothing more than the next tournament to come around so Gavin would stop.

Luckily for Ryan, he didn’t even have to wait the full decade for the shift in power. Gavin didn’t seem to care too much how long he reigned, and seemed more interested in having fun with it than anything. It was only seven years after the previous tournament that Gavin announced the next one.

Going into this tournament, Ryan was determined to win and regain the crown again. He knew he could do better than Gavin, he already had a couple times before, and a third would only mean more of a chance to show it. And if he was honest, he was itching for that small rise in power again, to be on top once more and able to control just a little bit more than he normally could. He was determined to win this tournament by any means necessary.

“Any means necessary” turned into finding loopholes and being sneaky about securing wins for himself in the tournament. Gavin wanted a tamed wolf found and brought to the arena - he intended for someone to find one that was within the forest, but Ryan managed to go get one of their wolfhounds and bring it back before anyone found it, and it was counted as a technical win. Gavin asked them to cook three different kinds of meat and give them to him. Ryan stole Michael’s when they were half cooked and the other Knight’s back was turned, finished cooking them, and managed to present them to Gavin before Michael figured out who had done it.

The other Knights didn’t seem overly pleased with Ryan’s take on the challenges this time around, but Ryan just laughed it off, declaring it all to be in good fun. And if Gavin didn’t say he  _ couldn’t _ do something, then there was nothing stopping him. The crowd of citizens watching seemed to find Ryan’s solutions highly amusing and entertaining, so the issue wasn’t pushed, but Ryan could feel the others watching him more closely for signs of blatant cheating.

Even with Ryan’s trickery, Gavin’s tournament ended up being the closest race he’d seen yet, a five way tie between all the competing Knights when the last challenge was proposed. Really, Ryan’s victory was sheer dumb luck, driven by some of the Knights’ inability to use a bow. Besides Gavin, he and Michael were the only ones to seriously train with them, maintaining some level of adequacy with all weapons to make fighting monsters easier.

Michael was taken out quick, and it wasn’t too difficult for Ryan to handle himself from there. It wasn’t even all that necessary, as they each stood atop small platforms, and falling or getting shot meant disqualification. Geoff ended up falling off of his all on his own, and Ryan sat back as Jeremy and Jack focused on each other, until Jeremy went out. After that, all it took was one arrow to get Jack, the only one that Ryan shot, and for the third time in Ryan’s relatively short time as a Knight of the Star, he was crowned King.

His most recent crowning seemed to worry some of the others. Jack and Geoff both offered to help him if he ever needed it, and suggested that he take it slow and perhaps consider a short reign. As Ryan was told, the Knight whose position he had taken had stepped down after constant and frequent victories that had put him in the position of King far more often than he could handle, and even that small boost in power over long periods of time could really mess with someone. Ryan just smiled and told them he was fine. He could handle it without a problem.

Gavin and Michael’s main concern happened to be that Ryan had won nearly every single tournament he had competed in, and it was getting to be ridiculous. How was he that good already, anyway, when everyone else had at least a century’s worth of experience over him? Ryan overheard them talking about it at one point and popped up behind them with the explanation of dark magic, scaring Gavin with his sudden presence. He heard the lads muttering, “You know, at this point, I think I believe it” as Ryan left.

Jeremy offered help like Jack and Geoff had, but also ended up keeping Ryan company more often, saying that him closing himself off to work all the time probably wasn't very good. They spent more time together, working on their own projects independently in the same space more often than not, and occasionally sharing bits and pieces of what they were doing. Of all the Knights, Jeremy was the one that Ryan felt most comfortable spending long periods of time around, since Jeremy didn’t act like Ryan was a ticking time bomb or he was going insane.

The years got more difficult in Ryan’s third reign, as monster activity rose inexplicably, threatening the lives and livelihoods of many of the kingdom’s people. Creatures that hadn’t been seen in certain realms were now appearing, endermen and witches showing up more often outside the Magic Realm, creepers seen more frequently and in larger numbers, zombies and skeletons coming down from the mountains or out of the shade of the forests. Spiders terrorized unprotected cities, and feral wolves ravaged livestock.

Defenses and military were needed more than ever, but they were stretched thin. Ryan started working on new plans, less effective defenses that injured and likely increased a monster’s suffering, but was more helpful against many of them and not the occasional stray. He trapped them, tried to understand what was happening and find a trend in this increase, and ended up keeping a few himself for study. Jeremy helped him where he could, and occasionally used these trapped monsters for his own blood magic needs, though this activity seemed to unnerve everyone else.

With this new threat, his kingship stretched on longer and longer, as it never seemed a good time for a tournament to be held. Ryan started making more calls over the suggestion of the others, methods of handling it that he thought would be most effective. He knew how to fight monsters, he knew ways of combating them, so he didn’t see why they shouldn’t listen if he told someone to do something differently. Michael was the only one he really trusted to come up with better alternatives, at least until a certain point, when even Michael was growing cautious and unsure in the face of the threat.

Ryan found himself falling into the same habit Gavin had had, telling someone what to do and that they should listen because he was King and knew what he was talking about. But unlike Gavin, Ryan was sure he did know, and grew annoyed and frustrated when one of the others didn’t listen.

Gavin started to pester him about a new tournament fifteen years into his reign. Jack suggested perhaps a new tournament would boost spirits, since the militaristic approach they’d had to take and the fear that had been lingering in small towns was seriously wearing on people. But Ryan brushed them aside, insisting he didn’t have time to organize a tournament when he was trying to keep the kingdom safe and deal with the monsters that everyone else seemed strangely unconcerned about.

Eventually, it was Jeremy that got Ryan to take a break and start working on a tournament plan. After a twenty year reign, it was clear to everyone but Ryan that it was taking a toll on him. He was more snappy and aggressive, he didn’t sleep much, he was harried and almost obsessed, and in the end Jeremy approached him about it to try and help.

He pulled Ryan away from his plans and everything he was working on, and got the two of them to talk over more benign and meaningless hobby work to help Ryan destress. Ryan ended up agreeing to another tournament, though rather reluctantly as he didn’t think that he should step down yet and give the power to someone else who might not know what they were doing with the current situation. But Jeremy promised that whoever took over, they had more than enough experience, and it would be fine.

So Ryan started planning his tournament, around the work that he was putting into the kingdom. Though the desire to keep the crown and maintain his rule remained strong, and Ryan progressed slowly, drawing it out as long as possible. The plans that he made were more brutal and harrowing than the last, things that would be difficult to complete, making it more difficult for someone to take his crown.

A full twenty-three years after Ryan had taken up the crown again, a new tournament was called, and the Knights discovered what Ryan had been slowly planning for them to face. Nearly every challenge was deadly and dangerous, from being the last man standing against large hoards of the monsters that Ryan and Jeremy had been researching, to grabbing something from a deep and treacherous pit that was almost more difficult to get out of than it was to get in. Every single challenge came with the addition that they could fight each other for the win, and Ryan’s third tournament dragged on.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t amused to put these challenges forward and watch the other Knights try to tackle them. There was little guilt at watching one of them sustain a serious injury or even die, knowing that they would be fine in a matter of minutes, and it was always interesting to see what they would put up with just because Ryan was the King and he said so.

Unfortunately, this tournament like any other was destined to end after a time. Even Ryan’s perilous plans couldn’t keep Jack from eventually earning his fourth golden block, and Ryan was more than a little bitter to be giving up the crown once again.

Instead of meeting Jack halfway on the steps to pass on the crown, Ryan waited at the top on the throne. Jack hesitated a moment before scaling the rest of the stairs and stopping in front of Ryan, frowning faintly. Ryan met his eyes, making no immediate move to remove the crown from his own head.

“Ryan, it’s over,” Jack said quietly, so only Ryan could hear his words. “You need to take a break from this, and pass off that crown.”

“I don’t want to,” Ryan admitted, also working to ensure that his voice didn’t carry. No one else needed to know the conversation, not really.

“I’ve gathered as much,” Jack said, and his eyes were hard as he continued. “But no one should be in power for so long. There’s a reason we cycle who is King, so that this doesn’t happen. You need a break from it. And if you don’t give up that crown and step down from this throne, then I don’t think you’re actually cut out to be a Knight after all.”

Ryan stiffened and then scowled. “I’ve already proven that I am.”

“And you’ve proven that you can’t handle nearly forty-five years of this responsibility in your first century. Give up the crown and take a step back, or we’re going to be looking for a new Knight,” Jack said seriously.

There was a moment of tense silence between the two, and then Ryan slowly lifted the crown from his head and passed it to Jack. As he did, he noticed that the once gleaming red gems that trailed along it had darkened, and a crack had formed in the metal.

Jack took the crown, running a finger over the crack and looking from it to Ryan in concern, before he put the crown on his own head. “Thank you. I don’t want to lose you here, Ryan. We’re here to help you.”

Ryan just nodded, clapped Jack on the shoulder, and started down the steps without a word. Perhaps a break was what he needed, even if that was the last thing that he wanted. Or perhaps he really did still need to prove himself and do better next time.

It wasn’t often that a King’s title ended up changing within the Kingdom of the Star. But Ryan’s title of Redstone King was relatively short-lived - after that point, a new title rose up among the citizens, who wondered as to the stability of the newest Knight.

It was the start of Ryan Haywood, Knight of the Spring Realm, and the Mad King.


End file.
